Future of UMCP Campus Continues To Be Weighed by Planning Board

Matthew Hersh

The Regional Planning Board of Princeton continued to consider possibilities for what would best suit the site at 253 Witherspoon Street should the University Medical Center at Princeton be successful in relocating its facility to an off-site campus nearby.

Princeton HealthCare System, the hospital's parent entity, has not yet announced a probable relocation site.

But in the event that the hospital does relocate, municipal planners are now considering how to develop the 12-acre block, bounded by Henry Avenue, Franklin Avenue, Witherspoon Street, and Harris Road.

As it stands, the board has design proposals from Princeton Future, an organization that sponsors community discussion on in-town development, and from architect J. Robert Hillier, a paid hospital consultant.

Princeton Future derived its series of proposals from its Witherspoon Street Corridor Study. While the seven schematics do not rely on one comprehensive development strategy, they propose to have the hospital's 12 acres absorbed into the surrounding neighborhoods, with new streets and anywhere from 111 to 306 various types of housing units ranging in affordability, and a park, tentatively called "Unity Park."

The proposal put forth by Mr. Hillier, head of the West Windsor-based Hillier Architecture and minority owner of Town Topics, focuses on maintaining UMCP's eight-story tower and converting it into a 280-unit resident-owned facility targeted to individuals 55 and older. That complex would include public day care and fitness facilities. The Hillier proposal also includes developing the surface parking lot on Franklin Avenue to accomodate 23 townhouses, flats, or duplexes.

Board member Wendy Benchley said her "initial instinct" was to continue use of the hospital's garage however the site is transformed. "It would be a waste to get rid of the garage," she said. adding that a future developer might consider disguising the garage, much as Princeton Borough did with its municipal garage on Spring Street, which is blocked on the western side facing Hulfish Street with a residential/commercial complex, Witherspoon House.

Ms. Benchley said she supported the idea of moving away from a "superblock" while promoting various types of housing and styles, and incorporating the neighborhood's road infrastructure throughout the site. One of Princeton Future's proposals includes an extension of Leigh Avenue east through the UMCP block.

Ms. Benchley also questioned the feasibility of re-using the hospital tower: "That's a business decision that the developer has to make, but there are questions there that I would love to have answered."

Residential use was the basic function recommended by a municipal task force created to examine alternate possibilities for the hospital site.

"When we talked about residential," said board member Marvin Reed, "the first thing that seemed to come to people's minds, was the CCRC." Mr. Reed, who referred to concept of a Continued Care Retirement Center, said that idea received "a lot of favor" from various area senior groups, the appeal stemming largely from the site's proxmity to in-town amenities. The former Princeton Borough mayor added that a CCRC was in tune with "a lot of the adaptive re-uses of the building."

Mr. Reed added, however, that "one of the most problematic" issues of redevelopment is whether to make the Franklin Avenue surface lot currently used by hospital employees an extension of the Franklin and Maple Terrace house or to create a "blank slate," leaving the door open for a new type of housing.

Peter Madison, Planning Board Township co-chair, said 23 houses on the Franklin surface lot could prove to be "disruptive," but promoted some sort of density on the main block. He also questioned Princeton Future's tactic of integrated roads, worrying that such a concept would yield "space for roadways instead of housing."

Board member Jacqueline Tillman suggested that roadways could "incorporate the neighborhood," but Mr. Madison suggested that access roads would work well, "but not through streets." He added that he was "not inclined" to tear down the hospital tower.

The Planning Board is slated to track some parameters that would permit the Princeton Community Master Plan to allow zoning changes on site. Planning Board officials have said that those parameters should be in place by mid-summer, with possible Master Plan amendments made in the fall.

In other business, an application to transform a two-story, 47,000 square-foot office building on Thanet Circle was carried to the board's July 7 hearing. Hillier Architecture is proposing to transform the current structure, once the home for the Institute for Defense Analysis, to a modernized office building.

A plan, however, to reconstruct, restripe, and expand the current 104-space parking lot by adding 111 parking spaces did not sit well with residents, most from nearby Governors Lane, who worried that the increased activity in the area would offset property values of adjacent homes. Residents also worried about noise from the rooftop air conditioning unit on the proposed building, as well as parking lot lighting at night.

The application was carried to the later date because of the late hour.